Natural Beauty & Ethnic Culture Discovery

In the morning, your guide and the driver will pick you up at your hotel and let’s hit the road for the 2-hour journey to Longsheng. Prepare to marvel at the layered terraced fields and explore the hidden Zhuang villages!

Upon arrival, we’ll hike up to the best viewing platform of the Dragon’s Backbone Rice Terraces to admire the grand scene of over 1,100 terraces cascading like the dragon’s scales, with local farmers working on their plots and native stilt houses in the distance. The landscape is at its most breathtaking from April to June, when the flooded paddies create a mirrored labyrinth, and again from September to October, when the autumn harvest transforms the mountainside into a golden sea. Compared to other rice terraces in China, these fields are narrower, steeper, and smaller, relying entirely on manual cultivation techniques. During the busy farming season, the villagers often enjoy bamboo tube rice as lunch, made from glutinous rice harvested right from these terraces. They pack soaked rice, pork mince, and veggies into a bamboo tube filled with mountain spring water, and cook it over a wood fire beside the embankments. The bamboo’s moisture will steam the rice perfectly and infuse it with a fresh aroma.

Then, we’ll stroll down the cobblestone paths to the nearby Zhuang minority villages to admire their distinctive wooden stilt houses. Before 2020, the villages were mostly inhabited by elderly people, as young generations left in search of better job opportunities. Now, many have returned to revitalize the community by running guesthouses and sharing ethnic culture through live streaming and creative videos. 

After a day of exploration, you’ll enjoy a private escort back to your hotel in Guilin.

Meals: Western buffet breakfast

★ Li River Cruise: Floating within a Show of Karst Peaks

No Guilin tour will be complete without taking a Li River cruise. After the morning hotel pick-up, your guide and the driver will escort you to the pier to board a 4-hour cruise from Guilin to Yangshuo. Expect to float downstream past a kaleidoscope of limestone peaks shaped by nature over millions of years, which enchant you with the dramatic rock walls of Nine Horses Mural Hill, beautiful reflections at Yellow Cloth Shoal, and the riverside Xingping Ancient Town… Discerning film directors would never miss such otherworldly landscapes - don’t you think the Kashyyyk Planet in ‘Star Wars: Episode III’ is just out of the undulating peak forests here? Additionally, the scenery along the Li River and the adjacent Moon Hill was combined with CGI in ‘Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore’ to create a magical world.

After having a simple lunch box, we’ll disembark at around 14:00 in Yangshuo. Then, a specially arranged cycling tour awaits you to absorb in picturesque rural scenes. With each rotation of the pedals, you’ll spot thrill-seekers climbing steep peaks along the country road, bamboo rafts navigating the Yulong River, and the karst stone cave on Moon Hill in the distance. To maximize your experience, your guide will also accompany you to a typical village family, delving into their daily life beyond rice and citrus fruit cultivation. If you prefer not to cycle, a tour by private car is equally fascinating.

As evening approaches, we’ll escort you back to the downtown hotel. Maybe explore West Street on your own after a rest, a ‘global village’ built by Western travelers. Initially discovered by backpackers who opened the rock-climbing routes, the area later thrived as they settled down and operated cafes and hotels. Try the local specialty, Beer Fish, if you’re interested, which is prepared by frying unscaled carp from the Li River before simmering it with beer, tomatoes, and fresh peppers. The restaurants Senior Chef’s Gold Medal Beer Fish and Third Sister Xie’s are both excellent local favorites.

Meals: Western buffet breakfast, Lunch box

Today marks the end of your 4 days Guilin Longsheng Yangshuo tour package, and we’ll drive back to Guilin after breakfast, with a stop at the less-known Xiong Village, once a key trading hub dating back to the 14th century. Meandering along the polished stone paths, you’ll notice that nearly every household has a brick counter built under the wooden windows that face the alley. In the past, goods were displayed here for sale, allowing owners to conduct business with passersby after opening the wooden shutters.

Once arrive in Guilin, your guide and the driver will escort you to the airport or train station to see you off. Hope you had a great time with us!

Meals: Western buffet breakfast